Pages

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

{Review} {Giveaway} Toxic by Rachel Van Dyken

Blog Tour Stop

3/4/14

Toxic

SYNOPSIS:

Everyone has a secret...

Gabe Hyde is on borrowed time. He's been hiding his identity for over four years-hidden from the world that used to adore him--obsess over him--driven to the edge of insanity by one poor choice.But that one choice, altered the course of his life forever.

Pretending isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when pretending means hiding your real self from the people that care about you the most. But if anyone ever discovered the truth it wouldn't just be his life at risk--but hers.Saylor doesn't hate men.Just Gabe.

Only Gabe.

He's a reckless, happy-go-lucky, silver spoon fed pain in her ass. Everything about him makes her more and more confused. Unfortunately they both donate time at the same Group Home. If she wasn't afraid of flunking, she'd be long gone. She hates that she's attracted to him almost as much as he hates that he's attracted to her--and she can tell, especially since their first encounter ended up making her knees so weak she couldn't form coherent sentences for weeks afterwards. But the closer she gets to him, the more confused she becomes. He isn't who he says he is, and he's hiding something big.What happen when two worlds collide? Two worlds that never should have met in the first place? Some secrets are too big to be hidden forever--the only question? Will his destroy everyone he loves? Or finally bring about the redemption he's been craving for the past four years? Everyone has a secret...What's yours?

My Thoughts

I absolutely LOVED this book... By the end of it, it looked like a rainbow of highlights because there were SOOOO many amazing quotes that stuck out to me and I just loved it!!

Gabe was a broken man who had a lot of issues stemming from a tragic night that he takes full responsibility for... With all the secrets surrounding him, he carries a weight the size of another grown human being on his shoulders and it is never lightened, his load is almost too much for him, but he deals the best way he knows how. Saylor is a hard working music major, who has her own issues that most people are unaware of. She works hard so she will be able to take care of the people she loves the most. When she quite literally runs into Gabe, everything she believes and is working hard to achieve is in trouble. He's an asshole and treats her like shit but she is drawn to this asshole. Through his music, she can tell he is haunted and she wants to know why. Cocky arrogance is only a front and pain and heartbreak is in his soul. The way he plays lets her know Gabe is not what he seems but she'd be stupid to try and peel away the layers and discover the real him. This book was full of emotions that bleeds into every page. So many trials and tribulations that have you anxiously turning the pages to see where everything is going and who exactly these people are because they are definitely not who they claim to be. So many secrets get uncovered and reading it made me feel like I was on a never ending roller coaster with more dips and turns than my heart wanted to take in... There were times when I wanted to strangle Gabe with my bare hands and slap him upside the head, while other times I wanted to jump his bones and let him have his way with me... And then by the end of the book I was feeling more like this...

Rachel just completely wrecked my soul and it was soooo beautifully awful that I wasn't sure if I was suppose to feel happy or devastated. It was like SHE waited for him to find true love and then it was time for her to move on. And it was beautiful, yet at the same time, heartbreaking, because of everything they've been through!!!! UGH... so sad but so amazing... (You are probably lost on where I went with that but you will get it once you read it)

;)

I loved that the whole gang from Ruin was in this book too. It was great to see the relationship between Gabe and Wes because I did not think they were that close in Ruin so it was a nice surprise when I read just how close they are in Toxic.

Overall, I give this amazing story with so many dynamic characters a 4.5/5 and I cannot wait to read more from them and Rachel!!!

EXCERPT:

Life has two stages.

Birth and death. That’s it. What you do in between the two? Well, that’s up to

you, isn’t it? —Wes M

Saylor

Behind me, Gabe ceased all motion. The only way I knew he was

still there was from the heat that seeped into my back from where his body

touched me. More warmth rolled off his hands where they seemed fused to mine.

Any minute now, I expected him to pull away, to slip into mask number one or

mask number two. Instead, he flipped my hands over, gripping them with his

fingers and exhaled, long and slow. Seconds went by, but they may as well have

been years. Each time he let out a breath, my heart skipped a beat of longing,

needing more of his touch — more of something. My back tingled as the hard

planes of his stomach pressed against me. I was in a Gabe cocoon.

And I loved it.

Until the music started.

With slight pressure, Gabe moved my hands to the piano, slowly,

effortlessly placing them on each key.

He was playing through me, using my body as an

instrument to convey the story of his life. Each time he pressed down on one of

my fingertips or guided me to another area of the piano, I felt the sadness of

the song clench deeper. The notes became floating tendrils of pain, each one of

them slowly invading my body and taking hold until it hurt to breathe.

He moved faster and faster, my hands couldn’t keep up. I pulled

back as he continued the song, in such a rush it was like he was yelling but

doing it with music. Unable to convey it in any other way.

With a final burst of movement, he lifted his hands off the

piano and smashed them against the keys, causing a chaos of notes to burst

forth.

Gabe’s breathing was uneven, ragged as he leaned heavily against

me, his chin resting on my head, and he whispered brokenly, “I can’t.”

“You were doing so good.”

“It’s like getting into a car with suicidal tendencies. You keep

going faster and faster, needing the adrenaline to keep you alive until

suddenly you turn the wheel and everything goes black. The notes, they go

higher and higher, and right when I feel like I can change the outcome — I

panic. Some things…” He sighed and pulled away. “Some things are better left in

chaos.”

“Are you sure about that? Are you sure about perfection?” I

folded my hands in my lap, but didn’t turn around.

“Sure.” He moved from behind me and sat on the bench. “If life

was perfect, how in the hell would we ever learn to depend on someone other

than ourselves? If anything, that’s what life’s taught me. The need to be

perfect is stemmed in the very belief that it’s actually something we can

achieve. Self-actualization — doesn’t exist.”

I licked my lips and looked down at the keys. “Does that mean we

don’t try then?”

“No.” Gabe tickled a few of the ivory keys in front of him, the

music note tattoos on his fingertips looking darker against the white of the

piano. “It just means when you reach the end of your rope, you shouldn’t regret

a damn thing, but applaud yourself for trying to do the impossible.”

I felt like he was using double meanings. The philosophical Gabe

was a bit terrifying because he made me feel more insecure than the jackass

Gabe. But the guy sitting next to me right now? I was beginning to understand,

he wasn’t just one person. He was every person, everything, whatever he needed

to be, he was.

Like a chameleon.

And suddenly the ending to the story made sense.

Ten different notes all clamoring at once.

Chaos.

Gabe was Chaos.

“So.” He sniffed and cleared his throat. “Now that I’ve totally

ruined the moment by talking in my serious voice and scaring the shit out of

you — why don’t we work on one of your performance pieces?”

“Okay.” I placed my hands on the piano again, careful to angle

my wrists at the perfect degree and keep my eyes on the music ahead. Sometimes

both your first and last — like you’re saying both hello and goodbye — like

you’ve just been born… like you’ve just died.”

Rachel
Van Dyken’s Bio:

Rachel Van Dyken is the New York
Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of regency and
contemporary romances. When she's not writing you can find her drinking coffee
at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor.

She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband and their snoring Boxer, Sir
Winston Churchill. She loves to hear from readers!

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

I am a book reviewer that spends more time with my nose in a book and music in my ears. My husband has thought of having an intervention for me because he was worried I spent more time in other people's worlds than I did my own. I have a strange sense of humor, I am sarcastic, I always have an opinion on something, I curse more than a sailor because I was raised by one, I love to interact with all kinds of people and if you are an author that can elicit emotions from me or make me laugh so hard I cry, then you and I need to become BFFs. I love authors and I hope to promote any new author who is trying to get their work out there for the public and as long as I think your work is good I will do it! So check out my reviews and see what I am alll about..